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If US parties hasn't trained their followers for decades to believe any nonsense as long as it helps the party Russian hacking wouldn't be a problem. In my view

If US parties hasn't trained their followers for decades to believe any nonsense as long as it helps the party Russian hacking wouldn't be a problem. In my view it would be more important to get rid of the constant campaigning, distortion of facts, undermining of democratic institutions and partisanship. The Russian hacking seems just a sideshow that uncovers homemade problems.

lx3459683 8y ago
Fake news only carries weight because people have been indoctrinated into blindly accepting appeals from authority and failing to engage in the most basic kinds of critical thinking.
- bena 8y ago
  Fake news is nothing new. We used to call it yellow journalism. It actually got us into a war.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    Many wars, that is. Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Syria...
    - ataturk 8y ago
      Spanish American War. You might as well say the NY Times caused that war--they lied the American public straight into conflict over the USS Maine.
    - jessaustin 8y ago
      'ataturk you appear to be hellbanned, so I can't respond directly. (to see this yourself open this page in incognito mode) Your observation about NYT is correct, although their actions in fomenting that war were hardly worse than in the later wars I mentioned.
throwaway5752 8y ago
So... Democratic party problem you're saying? Democratic party benefited from Russian hacking, is undermining democratic institutions, and distorting facts? You used the plural form, "parties" and I am curious about your analysis on the bipartisan nature of the root of this problem. edit: Don't care about imaginary HN points, so downvote away. Just introspect a moment on what it says about the rational basis of your beliefs if you can't tolerate/respond to something you disagree with.
- freeflight 8y ago
  From the outside, it's been glaringly obvious that the US has had a very nasty partisanship problem for quite a while. In other democracies opposing parties manage to build a government and, mostly, work together for the "common good", there exists cooperation even across some of the largest ideological rifts. That kind of cooperation seems impossible in the US, it's like the two big parties have no other purpose but constantly opposing and obstructing each other, often out of sheer principle, every chance they get. Even tho their actual ideological positions ain't that far apart.
  - throwaway5752 8y ago
    Can you give me an examples of that on both sides, though? Because if it's a bipartisan problem, then it should be not terribly difficult to find equivalent examples on both sides. If you can't, then may it's not a partisanship issue and it's something else. edit: this thread doesn't need to go on, so I will say my final word in this edit. In the context of the topic at hand (Russian hacking, criminal conspiracy/obstruction) I think it's without precedent in US history, reaction to it transcends party lines (evidenced by numerous and bipartisan condemnations) and it's not helpful to pull it into the "both sides do it" narrative because it's almost 100% along a party line in terms of who is involved in it.
    - maxxxxx 8y ago
      Its partisanship. Democrats were loud about surveillance and foreign wars during the Bush years. Then they got quiet once Obama came in and did the same. Republicans were super concerned about the deficit during Obama years and now the completely forgot about that. People adjust their opinions based on who is in power. It's almost like 1984 " We've always been at war with Eastasia "
s73v3r_ 8y ago
Sorry, but this "both-sides-ism" is also a large part of the problem. There is One, and exactly One party doing these things currently, and it is not the Democrats.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  That's just nonsense. You can argue about the degree of fake news coming from each party but they do it both when it's convenient.

lx3459683 8y ago

Fake news only carries weight because people have been indoctrinated into blindly accepting appeals from authority and failing to engage in the most basic kinds of critical thinking.

bena 8y ago
Fake news is nothing new. We used to call it yellow journalism. It actually got us into a war.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  Many wars, that is. Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Syria...
  - ataturk 8y ago
    Spanish American War. You might as well say the NY Times caused that war--they lied the American public straight into conflict over the USS Maine.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    'ataturk you appear to be hellbanned, so I can't respond directly. (to see this yourself open this page in incognito mode) Your observation about NYT is correct, although their actions in fomenting that war were hardly worse than in the later wars I mentioned.

throwaway5752 8y ago

So... Democratic party problem you're saying? Democratic party benefited from Russian hacking, is undermining democratic institutions, and distorting facts? You used the plural form, "parties" and I am curious about your analysis on the bipartisan nature of the root of this problem. edit: Don't care about imaginary HN points, so downvote away. Just introspect a moment on what it says about the rational basis of your beliefs if you can't tolerate/respond to something you disagree with.

freeflight 8y ago
From the outside, it's been glaringly obvious that the US has had a very nasty partisanship problem for quite a while. In other democracies opposing parties manage to build a government and, mostly, work together for the "common good", there exists cooperation even across some of the largest ideological rifts. That kind of cooperation seems impossible in the US, it's like the two big parties have no other purpose but constantly opposing and obstructing each other, often out of sheer principle, every chance they get. Even tho their actual ideological positions ain't that far apart.
- throwaway5752 8y ago
  Can you give me an examples of that on both sides, though? Because if it's a bipartisan problem, then it should be not terribly difficult to find equivalent examples on both sides. If you can't, then may it's not a partisanship issue and it's something else. edit: this thread doesn't need to go on, so I will say my final word in this edit. In the context of the topic at hand (Russian hacking, criminal conspiracy/obstruction) I think it's without precedent in US history, reaction to it transcends party lines (evidenced by numerous and bipartisan condemnations) and it's not helpful to pull it into the "both sides do it" narrative because it's almost 100% along a party line in terms of who is involved in it.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    Its partisanship. Democrats were loud about surveillance and foreign wars during the Bush years. Then they got quiet once Obama came in and did the same. Republicans were super concerned about the deficit during Obama years and now the completely forgot about that. People adjust their opinions based on who is in power. It's almost like 1984 " We've always been at war with Eastasia "

s73v3r_ 8y ago

Sorry, but this "both-sides-ism" is also a large part of the problem. There is One, and exactly One party doing these things currently, and it is not the Democrats.

maxxxxx 8y ago
That's just nonsense. You can argue about the degree of fake news coming from each party but they do it both when it's convenient.